Riverside Passage

A former coal wharf on the river has become a public route hung beside an existing concrete wall. The 90-metre-long, four-metre-high remnant is the structural line for a light steel walkway and a new viewing platform.

The wharf once served a gasworks that supplied the city with coal. After the plant closed, one of two retaining walls was demolished and its rubble left between the dock and the flood embankment, where plants took hold. The design team kept the remaining wall, using it as both a plinth and a lateral support for a new structure that runs almost its entire length.

The steel passage projects at about two-thirds of the wall’s height, held by diagonal braces. A row of slender columns on its outer edge carries a continuous mono-pitched roof. The wall keeps a working role, while the planted crevice and the marks of demolition stay visible beside it.

The roof slopes down towards the wall and the overgrown gap, bringing the sheltered path close to the rough ground. Towards the river it rises above the walkway into an open platform. The change in height gives two experiences along one line: a compressed passage beside the wall and a wide outlook over the water.

At ground level, parts of the dock slab were polished into a skating surface, and ramps and bridges connect the city side to the raised route, linking wall, wharf and riverbank. The site keeps its industrial fabric while opening to everyday movement, rest and gathering.